A fantastic series that covers the lore of the Fallout series. A must watch! Check out Shoddy Cast for a HUGE library of videos of the highest quality. These guys do amazing work.

A great guide for new players who may be finding the engine of Fallout 3 a bit daunting.

!editors choice award!

Fallout 3

Game of the Year Edition

If you’re looking for the finest example of a post-apocalyptic RPG you need look no further than Fallout 3, Bethesda Studious reimagining of the popular series first brought to the public by Black Isle Studios. Fallout 3 sets the player in the burned out ruins of Washington D.C. to scour the nuclear wastes for weapons, armor, and supplies all while avoiding or engaging in armed conflict with the various citizens bent on killing the player. And if the groups of raiders and mutated animals weren't enough the environment is also just as deadly and will strike down players who are not keeping check on their character’s status. Radiation still lingers from where nuclear warheads had dropped nearly 200 years ago in this game universe. If left exposed for too long the radiation will slowly wither the player’s stats until they’re nothing more than another victim of the D.C. Wasteland. The game is played in either a clunky third-person perspective or a much more responsive and smooth first-person view. The story the player is tasked with following is mostly shallow and at some points outright stupid and, as in most open-world games, the narrative is over far too quickly if you only focus on the main story missions. The beauty of Fallout 3 is that the world is so intriguing and well-crafted that you’ll want to explore every nook and niche and strike out towards the horizon to see just what that building in the distance is. Fallout 3 has a look that is unique and so unified that you’ll find yourself lost in its alternate history and actually believe what you’re seeing. The game opens with an intro cut scene that is so well produced you’ll swear it’s is a movie instead of a video game where you actually have control over the experience. The graphics are cohesive, if dated, with some muddy textures when viewed up close and character models that make people look more like puppets than anything close to a real human. Some annoying voice acting and utterly horrifying mouth animations ruin the game slightly but the sheer rush of exploring the Wasteland and discovering its secrets more than makes up. The “Game of the Year Edition” packs all the DLC into one package and is the best bang for your buck; however, the PC version suffers from an unacceptable amount of game crashes due to poor PC porting and sadly requires the PC gamer to edit the “.ini” file to get modern multi-thread CPU's to run the game. It’s an unnecessary step and for PC gamers just playing for the first time a ruinous experience for those unversed in troubleshooting. Otherwise it’s an outstanding game that no gamer should pass up and a game I would consider a must own regardless of what genre-consumer you are. There’s something for every kind of gamer tucked away in the code of Fallout 3.

graphics

Fallout 3 has pretty much stood the test of time in terms of visual fidelity. The opening cut scene is done so well that it’s actually breathtaking and instantly pulls the player into the game. It’s surprising that more big-budget titles don’t have opening cinematics like this and in the minute or so that it takes to play out the player has been introduced to the entire look of the game. It’s so expertly handled that the opening cut scene is worth the price of admission alone. A radio is seen playing in the burned out husk of a city bus, playing an old 1950’s song and the camera is pulled up and away to reveal the downtown ruins of Washington D.C. in all its decaying glory. The sense of destruction and the scope of the devastation from the volley of nuclear warheads the superpower countries of this game world have traded is shocking to behold. And once you begin to explore this vast game world and get a good, hard, close-up look at the extent of the damage you’re pulled in even further. The fact that this fiction at one point was a reality and at some point may still happen makes exploring the world of Fallout 3 even that much more poignant. You start the game as a resident of a Vault-Tec underground residential commune, safely tucked away from the devastation top-side, living with your father who suddenly disappears. Discovering the history of the Vault-Tec company and the philosophy behind these underground structures is something this game reviewer won't ruin for you. Suffice to say, like many aspects of Fallout 3, appearances are deceiving. As you progress through the first half hour of the game you’ll eventually see the decline of what at first appears to be a good way of living until eventually the entire system comes crashing down and you’re forced to leave the Vault. The moment you step into the sunlight of the surface world the screen fills with blinding white light. Obviously life underground in a highly controlled environment has made those lucky enough avoid vaporization from nuclear war relatively weak and not well suited to life in this barren wasteland. Once your character’s eyes adjust the whole world opens up in a glorious way with a feeling that is palpable. It’s a rush of emotion and excitement that you won’t find in many video games. You find yourself overlooking what used to be a quiet suburb of the greater metropolitan area now littered with burned down husks of houses, a dilapidated elementary school, and the remains of downtown Washington D.C. looming in the distance just begging to be explored. If the opening cinematic didn't tug at your heart, the opening up of the game proper is revealed in such a spectacular way that I fear over explaining it will ruining it for new players. This opening area is intended to guide the player in the basics of the game mechanics but is done so well that you’ll not even notice you’re being trained. You’ll be amazed as you walk down deserted and crumbling streets, soaking in the sites, to even notice the game is helping guide you. It’s probably one of the best tutorial sessions ever as you won’t even be aware of it happening. Generating your character is also tucked up neatly into a seamless experience at the very opening of the game. Again, this humble reviewer won't spoil the surprises the game tosses at you from the moment you boot the game up. Once you start poking around the game world you’ll be pushed by sheer human will to continue to explore. If you spot a structure on the horizon chances are you’ll be able to strike out until you reach your destination and will be treated to an explorable building riddled with loot and equipment. Exploration is highly rewarded in Fallout 3 and the sites the game takes you to are all displayed in such gorgeous detail that you’ll actually want to see an entire set piece before moving along on your journey. Building interiors are portrayed in a patina of grime and decay; paint peels and blisters on the ceilings, furniture is upended and disheveled, and the whole look of the interior spaces is murky and creepy. Survival-horror this is not so you won’t find many parts of the game particularly scary as enemies are displayed on your mini-map and most character models aren't geared for fright but are no less creepy. You may turn a corner and be surprised to come face to face with a Ghoul or Super Mutant, but the game doesn't rely on cheap jump scares to get the job done. As you explore the guts of buildings there is a sense of tension as you know enemies are about but you don’t know exactly where they are until you have visual confirmation. Enemies aren't particularly terrifying in their character models but the first few encounters you have with the more combative citizens of Fallout 3 can be creepy. The first time you have a group of Feral Ghouls (the mobile remains of grossly irradiated humans) bum rush you is enough to raise your blood pressure but not so terrifying as to pee your pants. They move fast and rush the player to melee attack and since they’re in such close proximity you can see the burned flesh and the open wounds, a body in a slow state of decay. You’ll certainly shoot on sight as these mindless human husks are dangerous in packs but don’t be fooled by the emaciated figure; these skinny enemies can take a good full round of bullets to fell. There are a few Ghouls you will come across as you rove the D.C. Wastes who maintain their humanity and thanks to the unified art direction they’re just as disgusting to look at as their Feral brethren. Rotting flesh clings to hollow cheeks and eyes are glazed milky white from cataracts. These friendly Ghouls pose no threat to the player however, but they add a nice contrast to the enemy type. Of note also are the Deathclaws that you’ll stumble across on your travels; hulking grey beasts that tower over the player and can lunge long distances to land an attack with their devastating scythe-like claws. They’re grossly mutated, vaguely human and very, very dangerous. Again they’re not terrifying in their look though they are unnerving along with most of the other denizens of the Fallout 3 world. While the character models are handled well overall, the game does suffer from a sense of repetitiveness even though there is a huge swath of land to cover. The downtown ruins of Washington D.C. are a thrill to comb through, searching buildings or simply walking around gazing at the twisted skeletons of the formerly glorious buildings. Outside the visually stunning downtown the rest of the game is an open, barren plain draped in dull browns and grays. The color scheme works to convey desolation and death but after a few hours of roaming the wastes your eyes tend to get bored. Textures are mostly high resolution and displayed well even when viewed up close, but some areas suffer from an overall lack of visual fidelity and seem either after thoughts tacked on at the end of production or lame first attempts at game development. Mostly, though, you won’t be disappointed by the overall look, feel, and theme of this destroyed piece of America. Where the graphics stumble and fall is in the facial animations and the movements of the character models. Mouths aren't timed to speech well and the movement of the mouth looks so fake it’s laughable. Human characters glide over the terrain as they attempt to take cover from the flying bullets and the walking animations grind the graphics down to a stub. Strange path finding issues, environment clipping, and a loopy camera in the third-person view round out the few flaws you’ll notice while playing. Generally you won’t find much to complain about in the look of Fallout 3. The world is unified totally and stems from an art direction that is obviously laser focused. Buildings tend to look the same both on the exterior and interior and the Wastes are equally repetitive, but because everything is bound up in a graphics package that’s so impressive you’ll soon find yourself lost in this game. The graphical repetition may be evident after an hour or so of play but the developers constructed this world in such a way that each set piece is fresh and exciting even though you’ll notice a lot of recycling of objects and textures. In other games this would lead to low scores or complaints of redundancy or boredom but in Fallout 3 you’ll forgive the repetitiveness as you tromp through sewers teeming with Feral Ghouls, the Capital Mall and the Smithsonian Museum overtaken by massive Super Mutants, and scattered settlements and abandoned suburban strongholds. Each location discovered is fresh and exciting and the satisfaction of nosing around even the smallest cave is nothing short of awesome. Of particular note are the abandoned Vaults you come across in the game. These sprawling concrete and metal subterranean structures are a thrill to explore. They are all basically the same textures skinned over differing hallway and room layouts but they’re so interesting in concept and execution you’ll spend the extra time just absorbing their enormity and former purpose. While the stumbles in the graphics are noticeable when they occur you’ll be so engrossed in the game you’ll just as quickly gloss over them as you move from one new location or quest to the next on your journey through the Capital Wastes.

Sound

The sound design behind Fallout 3 is superb in most areas. The different weapon types you pick up along the way each have a unique sound though weapon sounds are glommed together by weapon type and not individually. The standard assault rifle sounds much the same as the superior Chinese assault rifle and plasma weapons are basically reskinned and restated laser weapons. All weapons are recorded deftly, from the quick staccato of pistols to the whirring of a minigun, and all guns pack quite a satisfying punch. Explosive weapons are a thrill to use against your foes, and if you've got your PC connected to even a midrange surround sound system your ears will be treated to the throaty rumble of distant gunfire or the room-shaking bass of exploding grenades or missiles. Thankfully the game throws enemies at the player at the right frequency to allow them to utilize their array of weapons just enough to get the satisfaction of the “clack-clack-clack” as a semiautomatic pistol empties clip after clip to the growl of a shotgun as the buckshot comes ripping forth from the barrel. Projectiles land with a satisfying squish as they impact flesh and, if you’re lucky enough to dismember your target, body parts scatter with a dull but impressive thud. The sounds of combat are really pleasing to experience but the flat voice acting and the small vocal talent team keeps conversation stifled and hokey. You won’t be doing any talking in Fallout 3 since player character lines aren't recorded but when you’re forced to sit through the lame voice acting of the NPC's you’ll wish a little more time was spent developing the narrative and hiring a few more actors. Dialogue is read with the same inflection and intonation by the same actor across multiple characters and it cheapens the overall feel of the game. One character in particular, Moira, is read with such a phony Mid-Western accent it’s cringe inducing. It's done on purpose to force the player to choose whether she's seen as cute or annoying, so some players may not feel a twinge of guilt for...dealing with her. You’ll stumble across her in the early part of the game but her quest line is far too lengthy and you’ll have to report back to her often on your progress. As if by stroke of divine intervention all dialogue is skippable so if you can read the subtitles quicker than the character you can breeze through the disappointing voice overs and get back to the better parts of the game. The rest of the cast basically all sound the same which is disappointing for a game with such breadth as Fallout 3. You’ll come across a plethora of people, and a few non-human folks as well, to chat it up with but as the voices of each actor become increasingly apparent between ten different NPC's it makes this aspect of the game seem flat and cheap. Ambient and environmental sound effects help flesh out the game world and bring a little bit of life to an otherwise barren desert. You’ll hear the creaking of rusted steel support beams as you rove the downtown ruins or the whisper of a breeze while traipsing through the scorched suburban wasteland. Listen closely and you’ll hear the soft chirp of crickets or the skitter of some unseen creature scurrying around. These ambient effects are subtle but pop into existence in a natural and unobtrusive way and lend a little bit of depth and life to a place that’s otherwise completely dead. You will run across a few mutated insects on your journey each with their own set of recorded grunts, growls, and chirps but they’re unmemorable and generic. These sound effects certainly work and you’ll immediately know when a Giant Ant or Radscorpion is closing in on you by the distinct clatter of multiple legs scuttling across the sand. It’s nothing new to the giant insect thing we've seen smeared across the landscape of video gaming, but it works and adds a nice touch to have enemies differentiated by sound. You generally won’t be displeased with the sound quality while playing. The sound effects during combat are punchy and supremely satisfying. When the bullets begin to fly the sound engineering shines like a beacon; guns and weapons are hefty and weighty and if you’re lucky enough to find a mini nuke launcher your ears will get a real treat as the payload reaches critical mass and explodes in a devastating explosion complete with a mushroom could. You’ll certainly fall in love with the all the sounds of gunplay and combat but the voice acting is vapid and forgettable. It’s a shame that the voice talent feels so cheaply constructed because you will want to talk to every friendly you come across for information or quests. Thankfully a few quick clicks of the mouse ends the dialogue quickly so you can focus on the more enjoyable parts of the game. Aside from the terrible voice acting you’ll find that the sound is implemented naturally and, especially in the weapons department, gratifyingly.

GamePLay

The core of Fallout 3 is exploration through and through. A short tutorial sequence that’s so well built into the game and the plot leads the player though a few short missions and teaches the basics of combat and navigation. It’s a total hand-holding experience but it’s over quickly and once you’re released into the big, wide world the sensation you get is nearly indescribable. It feels as if the entire game unfolds in one languid motion as you take a moment just to take in the environment on your first foray out of the confines of the Vault. Once you find your fingers back on the keyboard and you remember that you’re actually in control it’s a feeling you get in far too few video games to date. You have the suggestion of following the mark on your map to the first quest but the game never actually forces you to follow the developer’s rules. Want to skip over the main quest line and just see what the Wastes have to offer? Go right ahead. The game won’t try to quell your curiosity or creativity but you will bump up against the confines of the game engine occasionally. For the most part you can strike out on your own to find riches or an untimely death, but the player really is charged with the flow of the game. It’s something that very few games of this genre accomplish as well as Fallout 3. By the way the game is structured you’re not exactly punished for not following directions. If you want something you can simply steal it or kill its owner if you don’t have the cash or inclination to follow the loose moral code of this universe. Get caught and people will get upset and most likely attack and if you’re particularly villainous you can strike back or outright wipe an entire town off the map and loot the pile of corpses littered at your feet. The game does keep track of your actions which may work against the player in the long run, but there’s nothing inherently wrong with mass slaughtering or siding with a group of slavers. Some NPC interactions and side quests will be locked out if your “Karma” slides too far towards good or bad but the main story quests will always be available no matter how you decide to play. If you’re particularly skilled you can play the entire game as a neutral character, sometimes helping and sometimes being outright evil but in such measured stakes as to become neither the savor nor the bane of your personal experience with Fallout 3. Combat is fast and furious for the first few hours of play but as your character levels up you’ll have access to special perks at each new level to help you survive your trek across the Capital Wasteland. Unfortunately, once you reach the top tier, where the level cap rests at 30 in the GOTY version or with at least the Broken Steel add-on installed, you’ll have amassed 30 special traits that tend to make your Vault Dweller a little too powerful. The game will be challenging to lopsided “Perk” selections, but first time players should carefully chose their perks on the first time playing through the entire game as well as their "S.P.E.C.I.A.L." points which dictate how effective their character is in certain areas such as endurance and sneak abilities, among others. Combat will become less fatal, weapons and ammunition will be spilling from your inventory, and the last few story critical missions will be relatively easy as you streak towards the finish line when you've run out of things to do or grow weary enough to just get to the end. The scope of the game and all the locations to discover ensure that you have hours of entertainment at your fingertips so most first time players will be able to sink at least 40 hours into the game before boredom sets in. Toss into the mix random encounters and respawning enemies and you have a game world that ensures you always have something to do. You are able to craft the look of your character to your liking though the system behind this isn't as full featured as I would have liked it to be. You can get the face of your character to look something like yourself, someone you know, or just some random person in your mind but with no body modifiers and a facial sculpting system that makes a lot of adjustments behind your back it's difficult to find a balance between what you think looks good and what the game decides looks good. Most of the time you’ll be playing the game in first person mode and you don’t often take the time to look at your character’s face, but if a game is going to give the player the option to craft something personal a little bit more control would have been appreciated. Cosmetic applications to your character are simply that, there’s no penalty to having a certain hair style or choosing one gender over the other. Once your character is clad in head to toe armor, completely shrouded from your vision, it seems like taking the time to create a unique character moot unless you’re into the hardcore role playing scene. Players who use their in game house and make it a point to dress appropriately for lounging around and sitting to eat a proper meal will take great pleasure in the character creation tool. For everyone else you can safely get your character to look something you find merely acceptable and jump right into the game. The combat system is fun and fire fights can be tense as the enemy A.I. actively seeks cover to shield them from the onslaught of bullets (or grenades, or bolts of super heated plasma…). Aiming can be difficult freehand so the developers have added a combat assistance program to help players whose hands are a little unsteady or just aren't quick enough to aim properly. “V.A.T.S” can be called up any time via your Pip-Boy, the in game menu used to show the world map, your inventory, and your character status. If there is an enemy on the screen the player can select the different body parts of the foe in their sights. Shots that land in this mode have increased damage at the expense of greater weapon wear and targeting a certain body part until it’s crippled will help prevent enemies from fleeing or affect their ability to aim accurately at the player. While in V.A.T.S. the game is paused so you have a few moments to get your bearings and make a solid plan of attack. While there is a meter that dictates how many shots you can fire in this mode, with the right set of perks under your belt you can basically use this system indefinitely. And if you choose to not build up your V.A.T.S. perks the various “medications” (read: street drugs) you find while exploring will help keep your meter full. The system is in place to help balance out the slight flaws in the combat system and it admittedly makes fighting a little too easy but for players who find the real-time system too rough this mode will be a blessing. The game lends itself to an open atmosphere of exploration and sets the player in a world where almost anything goes but there are some major flaws and the limits of the game engine rears its head in unexpected and often disappointing ways. For those playing on the PC with a multi-thread core will be disappointed by absurdly frequent crashes. A quick look on Google will point you in the right direction on how to fix this programming error. The fact that the game was shipped in such a broken state and there seems to be no patch in existence from Bethesda to fix this problem is simply unforgivable. Many PC gamers are into tinkering with their games but to charge the player to manually change the “.ini” file buried in the game directory is inexcusable. Clipping errors are abundant and characters models feel more like they float above the ground as opposed to walking on something solid. Path finding and navigating the world can be tricky as well. Some surfaces look impossible to scale but can be traversed with relative ease and a wonderful invisible wall confines the player to the swath of playable land. NPCs that get stuck in the environment, stiff animations, graphical tearing, and a few other minor glitches mar an otherwise pristine gaming experience.

Final Thoughts

Fallout 3 is a game that everyone who calls themselves a gamer must play. I was introduced to the series by a friend and was skeptical of whether I would regret spending the money on it. I prefer my role playing games to be in complete third person view and I’m not a big fan of the first person shooter. Having the option to play in either camera mode ensures that no player is forgotten. While the third person view is clunky it’s great for exploring the wide open outdoors as it gives the player a better vantage point for possible conflicts or to scan the environment for points of interest. The first person camera makes navigating the twisting corridors and ruined subway tunnels easier and helps the player keep tabs on enemy movement in these confined spaces. I was pleasantly surprised how well this camera swapping scheme worked and how adeptly it’s implemented into the design of the game. Combat is fun and satisfying though made a bit too easy with the overuse of the V.A.T.S. system. But since this game allows the player to make their own rules to play by you can simply decide for yourself to never use this combat aid mode or use it exclusively. You can also go ahead and challenge yourself to using melee weapons only, only a certain type of gun, to have companions tag along with you or go solo for the whole game, or any other handicap or help the game gives you. Since the game rarely locks you into one style of play you can change your mind as you please with little consequence. This sense of actual freedom in a video game is a hard moment to capture and the fact that Fallout 3 allows you, for the most part, to play however you want it substantially opens up the game in ways not many titles can claim. For those PC gamers who are interested in really making Fallout 3 their own special playground there is an extensive modding community who has taken up the banner of creating a plethora of custom content to add to the base game. While the animations and voice acting miss the mark the game as a whole is simply jaw dropping. To say this game is an experience is not lip service. This is a place where you can play how you want, to tackle missions at your own pace or not at all, and there are a ton of spots to visit and explore. Players with a keen eye will find notes and clues in many areas that fill in the history of this world and explain what happened to the original occupants. Locked containers can be picked opened, unlocked with a key if you’re lucky enough to find it, and computer terminals that hide valuable information behind firewalls can be hacked in a fun little password minigame. This computer hacking isn’t terribly difficult once you figure out how the system works and it’s a nice diversion and an interesting way of keeping the player engaged and immersed in the game world in a natural and transparent way. The lock picking minigame is a little bland and done before; turn the bobby pin into the correct position and counter turn the lock and viola, you have access to whatever goodies have been stowed away. Once the player has a good handle on how these systems work they become monotonous after a time and once your inventory is full to bursting you’ll probably skip over these diversions all together. For the few flaws in the game the total package is slick and well presented. From the moment the game opens with its stunning cinematic, to the end game where the narrator recaps your achievements or misdeeds, you’ll be absolutely hooked and totally engaged. Even with the “.ini” file fix to get the game running, modern machine system crashes are still far too common and it’s this that rips the player from the game as opposed to the graphical flukes which are more charming than ruinous. Though the V.A.T.S. system pushes the combat into the realm of too easy literally blowing your foes into bloody chunks never fails to satisfy. Laughable voice acting and some questionably strange animations may hurt the overall look and feel of the game but nothing so horrifying as to be considered a major, inherent flaw. If you’ve missed the Fallout series the third installation is a great starting point. Purists will want to start from the beginning, though the isometric fixed camera and turn based combat system may seem too dated for the younger generation of gamers. As it stands, Fallout 3 is a noble effort to resurrect the series and is presented with such vigor and in such a well-constructed manner that anyone who considers themselves a gamer must not skip over this title.